Small footprint 64 bit ISO reader

64-bitisowindows 7

In the good old days of Windows XP we had the Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for mounting ISO's.

Since Vista I have struggled to find a driver level shell extension that works on a 64 bit Windows.

I have tried Virtual Clone Drive and have no real complaints but what I really want is software that behaves just like MVCDControlPanel ie:

  • I don't want a permanent drive waiting to mount an ISO sitting in my drive list.
  • I really liked the tiny footprint and minimal resource usage of MVCDControlPanel so something that doesn't use much CPU (when it isn't reading ISO's).
  • Preferably with a right-click shell extension to mount an ISO or simply open it as you would a zip file.
  • It only needs to provide read-only access to the ISO
  • I always prefer software that doesn't stick its branding and silly logos or icons all over the place or on the temporary drive in explorer

I'm happy to pay for it. What are my options?

Best Answer

By far the best free ISO mounting tool out there is Pismo file mount.

Some highlights:

  • Works great on Windows Vista/7 x64 (not natively x64 but completely compatible)
  • Drives only exist when an ISO is mounted and are removed when there is no ISO mounted
  • Small memory footprint
  • Has simple minimalist right click shell integration
  • Unattended installation
  • No Branding or silly logos to speak of (very clean professional feeling program)
  • Fully featured command line control that is automatically working right after unattended install
  • Plus all the normal features you would expect from an ISO mounting tool
  • Free for corporate use

Some things you will want to pay attention to though is that by default it will not mount the ISO to a drive letter but instead mount it to a UNC path which can cause some software installers to fail when installing from the mounted path. Just make sure you specify that you want Pismo to mount to a drive letter when you are doing the mount and it will work fine.

Here is the unattended install of SQL to demonstrate my real world use of Pismo.

SET MSDNIsoPath=\\itapp\ISO Library\MSDN
SET ScriptPath=%~dp0
SET ScriptPath=%ScriptPath:~0,-1%
SET MountPath=m:
SET pfmMount=pfm mount -m %MountPath%
SET pfmUnMount=pfm unmount

echo -Installing Pismo File Mount
"%ResourcePath%\pfmap-051.exe" /q

echo.
echo Install and configure Microsoft SQL Server 2005 
echo -Installing Standard Edition
%pfmMount% "%MSDNIsoPath%\en_sql_2005_std_x86_dvd.iso"
%MountPath%\Servers\setup.exe /settings "%ScriptPath%\Configuration\Microsoft SQL Server 2005.ini" /qb /norestart
%pfmUnMount%
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